SANTA MONICA, CA, August 12—The summer of 2023 continues to see workers’ struggles all over the Los Angeles area coming to a head. From striking writers and actors to education workers at the Los Angeles Unified School District and the University of California systems, hotel workers of Unite Here Local 11 have joined the fight back, beginning a series of multi-day, rolling pickets on July 2nd. While the rolling pickets make it difficult to sustain regular support as the locations are constantly changing, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends have joined the various picket lines around the city learning about their struggle, distributing Party leaflets and CHALLENGE to reinforce the fact that their struggle remains interconnected with the struggle of all workers. The vast majority of workers we spoke to welcomed our support and took our literature.

Bosses attack!
On Saturday, August 5, PLP members and friends joined the picket lines of hotel workers of the Viceroy and Fairmont Miramar hotels in downtown Santa Monica. Not long after we showed up to the picket line at the Viceroy, the union led a 1-mile march down Ocean Drive, a busy street full of tourists, to the Fairmont Miramar. Shortly after the march arrived, the hotel bosses had their security attack the workers which was quickly followed by the Santa Monica KKKops, who arrived to protect hotel property and try to intimidate the workers. They effectively split the march in two and kettled (surround protestors for a time and not allow them to leave) them with a barrier and wall of cops and cop cars.

After being released without any arrests, the workers continued with their rally. The hotel bosses tried to drown it out by cranking up the volume of their music but the union leaders continued with their speeches, and demonstrators stood their ground. However, as expected, these misleaders made no connection between the role of police as protectors of private property nor of the politicians (their keynote speaker was a former mayor of Santa Monica) in maintaining capitalism and all its horrors. Two members of the Flores family also joined us and spoke to workers which helped reinforce our point about the role of the cops. One base member, a Black healthcare worker who was trapped with the workers in front of the hotel, also found being in solidarity with the workers powerful. Another young base member thought the Party’s presence helped workers begin to acknowledge the link between their struggle and the capitalist system. He also participated in the 2022 University of California student worker strike in Davis. He noted that the Party’s presence there could have had the same effect on the consciousness of those workers too.

Pacifism is not the answer
Hotel workers were not only attacked by security and KKKops at the Fairmont Miramar, picketers at hotels in Long Beach and Dana Point were also viciously attacked by security, management, guests, and a “celebrity” chef. In response, the union organized three peaceful protests at these hotels over the weekend. PL’ers and friends joined 200 workers and community supporters at the Fairmont Miramar rally. As expected the union misleaders pushed pacifism and non-violence as a response to the violent attacks. Going so far as to say workers should not defend themselves if attacked. They even pointed out the scum security guard who led the attack to say that they are on the same side as the hotel workers even though they obviously made a choice to be in solidarity with hotel management. Most of the speakers were union reps and clergy. The only worker who spoke repeated the call for non-violence and praised the union leadership. Despite this we were able to distribute 20 CHALLENGEs and leaflets and make good connections with workers.

Record profits = record exploitation
Hotel workers in Los Angeles (LA) County make a dismal $19.73 per hour and can’t even afford to live in the areas where they service hotels that charge rates that reach over $400-600 per night! It’s disgusting!

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a single mother would need to make over $40 an hour to afford a 2-bedroom apartment in LA County, still well above the proposed $30 an hour minimum in Santa Monica that the union is pushing for. In a survey by the union, 53 percent of workers said that they either have moved in the past five years or will move in the near future because of soaring housing costs (www.businesswire.com, 7/18). Meanwhile, the hotel industry in Santa Monica is booming, with revenue exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Many workers already live more than two hours away due to the exorbitant cost of living in LA County. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of hotel workers are Latin women, illustrating the gross sexism and racism built into capitalism’s profit system. A political and economic system that can’t meet the basic needs of the working class does not deserve to exist and needs to be smashed. That is why PLP calls for communist revolution, to smash these lousy conditions and put the working class in command.

Our leaflet emphasized how these workers’ fight remains especially interconnected with many recent struggles of workers who have struck or are currently striking. Strike fever here is spreading- LA City workers also conducted a one day walkout on August 8th. The leaflet also highlighted the limited power of strikes led by reformist union leaders who are loyal to a capitalist system which requires exploitation in order that profits be maximized. Even if union demands result in temporary gains, in a few years hotel bosses along with their allies in the bosses’ government will again resist providing even minimally decent conditions for the workers.

Moreover, the leaflet exposed the importance of racism and sexism in justifying the super exploitation of marginalized workers. As the strikes continue, Party members and friends in LA will remain committed to supporting hotel workers, writers, and actors throughout the summer.